News

Alton Lacey Announces Retirement from Missouri Baptist University

After nearly 24 years at the helm of Missouri Baptist University, President. R. Alton Lacey will retire at the end of the 2017-2018 academic year.

Dr. Lacey announced his retirement, effective June 30, 2018, at the quarterly MBU Board of Trustees meeting May 25.

“I do not have the words to adequately express my overwhelming sense of gratitude nor the honor and privilege that is mine for having the opportunity to serve as your president for the past 22 and ½ years,” Lacey said at the Board meeting. “At the end of my tenure, I will greatly miss the MBU students, faculty, staff, trustees and friends who have made up my world for the past third of my life.”

Dr. Lacey is now the longest tenured president in the life of MBU and, for that matter, of any sitting college president in St. Louis. In 1995, he was appointed as president of then-Missouri Baptist College after serving for 18 years as a faculty member and administrator at Louisiana College. Read more…

Union trustees OK academic reorganization creating two new schools

JACKSON, Tenn. – April 21, 2017 – Union University trustees at their April 21 meeting approved an academic reorganization for the university that will create the School of Social Work and the School of Adult and Professional Studies, in addition to changing the names of three other schools.

The McAfee School of Business Administration will become the McAfee School of Business, the School of Pharmacy will become the College of Pharmacy and the College of Education and Human Studies will become the College of Education.

The School of Social Work at Union has been a non-degree-granting school under the umbrella of the College of Education and Human Studies. This reorganization makes the School of Social Work its own degree-granting school.

Likewise, the continuing studies department has been a part of the College of Education and Human Studies, but the reorganization separates it from that college.

As part of the creation of the two new schools, trustees approved the appointment of Mary Anne Poe as the founding dean of the School of Social Work and Beverly Absher as the founding dean of the School of Adult and Professional Studies. Read more…

Dr. Jeff Iorg, President of Gateway Seminary, Delivers Talk on Priority of Prayers to Oklahoma Baptist University Students

Campbell University’s Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine launched its Opioid Abuse and Drug Abuse Curriculum in January in response to the nation’s epidemic that kills an average of 78 Americans each day.

North Carolina is home to four of the Top 20 cities in the United States for highest rate of opioid abuse — No. 1 Wilmington, No. 5 Hickory, No. 12 Jacksonville and No. 18 Fayetteville — according to a 2016 study by Castlight Health Inc., a nonprofit health care information company. In 2015 alone, prescription opioids like hydrocodone (used by doctors to treat pain) and illicit drugs like heroin and illegally manufactured pills claimed more than 1,200 lives in North Carolina — a 400-percent increase from 15 years earlier. Read more…

Dr. Linda Livingstone Set to Become Baylor University’s First Female President

Livingstone previously served as Dean and Professor of Management at George Washington University. She will become the first female president in Baylor’s history when she assumes her roles on June 1st.

Livingstone does have time logged in Waco. She served as a professor and associate dean of grad programs for the business school from 1991-2002. The Baylor statement gives much more excellent detail on her experience. Read more…

Holocaust Survivor Shares Story at Judson College

On March 21, 2017, Judson College’s Alumnae Auditorium was filled with students, faculty, administrators, and guests who hung on the words of a petite woman who stood on a box to be seen behind her podium.

Speaking in measured tones, Marion Blumenthal Lazan told the story of her childhood spent in concentration camps in Holland and Germany during the Second World War. “When I talk about those years, it is as if I am relating a nightmare, a very bad dream,” she said. However, Lazan’s story is one of triumph, of “perseverance, determination, faith, and above all, hope.” Read more…

WACO—Faith is a crucial factor in Christian higher education, both for students and for the leaders who guide them, presidents of Texas Baptist universities reported.

Leaders of four of the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ nine affiliated universities participated in a panel discussion, “The Future of Christian Higher Education,” during the BGCT’s annual meeting in Waco, Nov. 14.

Need for spiritual formation

One of the great challenges the schools face is the poor status of spiritual formation among their students, said Eric Bruntmyer, president of Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene.

“Students are not coming prepared spiritually,” Bruntmyer lamented. “We have a responsibility to our students to transform them from being a church-goer to walking with Christ—every day, all day long.” Read more…

Union University’s E.D.G.E. Program for Young Adults with Intellectual Disabilities Graduates Its First Class With A 100% Employment Rate

Union University’s E.D.G.E. program for young adults with intellectual disabilities is graduating its first class this month — with a 100 percent employment rate.

E.D.G.E. stands for employment training, daily living skills, godly focus and educational enrichment — the four core values the program is based upon.

The program stems from the Think College Initiative that was started at the University of Massachusetts-Boston in an effort to offer more options in post-secondary education for people with intellectual disabilities, Union E.D.G.E. program director Jennifer Graves said.

“The whole point of the Think College initiative was to come up with a college experience for people with intellectual disabilities to improve their quality of life,” Graves said. Read more…

Dallas Baptist University Launches Executive MBA Program

Dallas, TX – Dallas Baptist University recently announced its new Executive MBA program, an advanced degree designed to develop individuals who have the knowledge and capability to take on leadership roles in multiple settings across a breadth of industries and organizations.

Housed in the College of Professional Studies, DBU’s EMBA provides an environment where working professionals can advance their leadership skills while sharing ideas and experiences with business and academic colleagues. DBU’s EMBA offers one of the most effective and efficient programs designed to meet the needs of working professionals. Our four semester, 32 hour degree utilizes the knowledge already gained from previous leadership experience and integrates executive level critical thinking and skills development over sixteen courses that develop the whole leader.

For more information about the EMBA, please contact Jeremy Vickers, Dean of the College of Professional Studies, at jeremyv@dbu.edu.

Jairy Hunter to Transition to President Emeritus at Charleston-Southern

The Board of Trustees announced today that Dr. Jairy C. Hunter, Jr. will transition from the President of Charleston Southern University to President Emeritus on May 31, 2018 after 34 years of service. Over the past two years, the Board of Trustees and President Hunter have collaborated and developed a Succession Plan to ensure that the University continues to thrive and operate smoothly. Beginning June 1, 2018, as President Emeritus, Dr. Hunter will provide consulting and assistance in key areas such as strategic planning, external relations, resource development, enrollment and financial affairs. Additionally, he will continue to teach in the graduate school School of Business.

Chairman of the Board, Dr. Jerry Williams, expressed appreciation to Dr. Hunter and First Lady, Sissy, for an exemplary job in leading the University for over three decades. “Dr. Hunter’s visionary leadership, tireless dedication and unwavering commitment to Christian higher education literally has transformed CSU into one of the best Christian Universities in the country,” declared Dr. Williams. Read more…

Dr. Gene Fant Announced As New President at North Greenville University

The Board of Trustees of North Greenville University has elected Dr. Gene C. Fant, Jr., to serve as its next president.

“The Presidential Search Committee undertook a nationwide search with the assistance of the team of Price Harding, III, a partner and founder of CarterBaldwin Executive Search of Atlanta, Ga., a search firm with wide experience in higher education and especially in Christian higher education,” said Bill Tyler, Chairman of NGU’s Board of Trustees and Presidential Search Committee. “We evaluated nominations and applications from over 60 qualified candidates. In the end, it was about the candidate that would be the right fit for North Greenville and its mission.”

Fant, 53, has a long record of leadership in Christian higher education, most recently at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla. Read more…

Cumberlands Named National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense

University of the Cumberlands (UC) was recently named a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“We are excited and proud that after the NSA and DHS vetted our curriculum, faculty and University, it was determined that University of the Cumberlands is a national leader in cybersecurity education,” said Dr. Donnie Grimes, chair of UC’s School of Computer and Information Sciences and vice president for information services. Read more…

Bluefield College Softball Team Rallies After Automobile Accident

Members of the Bluefield College Lady Rams softball team were involved in an alarming automobile accident during a return trip from Barbourville, Kentucky, after a doubleheader with Union College on Saturday, Aoril 15. While several members of the team were injured, none were hospitalized and all are thankful to move on with their record-breaking season.

The accident occurred around 9 p.m. on Saturday, April 15 on U.S. Route 58 in Russell County, Virginia. The Lady Rams were traveling east in two vans near Castlewood, Virginia, when reportedly a driver traveling west in the eastbound lane struck partially head-on one of the vans carrying members of the Lady Rams softball team. Read more…

John Vassar Tapped as New Provost at Mary Hardin-Baylor

The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor has named Dr. John S. Vassar to be the school’s new provost & senior vice president for academic affairs. Currently the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Louisiana State University in Shreveport, Dr. Vassar will begin at UMHB on June 1, 2017. His selection culminates a nationwide search process that began last May.

“Dr. Vassar’s deep appreciation for our Christian mission and his open and creative approach to leadership make him a perfect fit for our UMHB community,” said Dr. Randy O’Rear, president of UMHB. “He is a distinguished and gifted administrator and scholar, and he fits the high bar set when our provost search was launched—a visionary leader deeply committed to Christian education, academic excellence, innovation, and collaborative leadership.”

As a key member of the president’s leadership team, Dr. Vassar will serve as the steward of UMHB’s academic priorities, planning for the future of the university’s academic programs, advocating for student success, and contributing significantly to UMHB’s next strategic plan.

A native of Shreveport, Vassar earned his bachelor’s degree in history from LSU Shreveport, his master’s degree in theology from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and his Ph.D. in religious studies from Baylor University. He is the author of numerous articles in the fields of philosophy, religious studies, and film studies, as well as the book Recalling a Story Once Told: An Intertextual Reading of the Psalter and the Pentateuch. In addition to his academic work, Vassar has served churches in both Texas and Louisiana as an intentional interim minister, having undergone the training program for intentional interims through the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Read more…